June 1 (UPI) — The Trump administration has issued at least 12 ethics waivers permitting top west wing staffers to work on topics they once lobbied on or alongside private companies where they used to work.
Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting lobbyists from working in his administration for two years after they left their jobs. The rule was meant to prevent a revolving door between the White House and the private sector.
Since issuing that order, the White House counsel’s office has issued at least a dozen waivers giving top staff approval to work, in many cases in which they have ties to specific industries.
Senior advisers Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Bannon were issued waivers. Conway’s enables her to work with former clients of her polling firm. Bannon’s frees him to talk with reporters and editors at Breitbart, the conservative news site he used to run, though it does not allow Bannon to engage in business discussions with Breitbart.
Other waivers were issued to:
— Energy policy adviser Michael Catanzaro, a former oil and gas industry lobbyist.
— Tax policy adviser Shahira Knight, a former executive at Fidelity.
— Economic adviser Andrew Olmen, a former insurance and banking lobbyist.
— White House counsel Donald McGahn and five other lawyers from the Jones Day law firm, which has represented Trump in the private sector, who were granted waivers to continue working on his behalf in the counsel’s office.
— Joshua Pitcock, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, who lobbied on behalf of the state of Indiana on several issues when Pence was governor.
In a statement, the White House said it worked to reduce the number of conflicts and publicized the list for transparency’s sake.
“The White House has voluntarily released the ethics waivers as part of the president’s commitment to the American people to be transparent,” the statement said. “The White House Counsel’s Office worked closely with all White House officials to avoid conflicts arising from their former places of employment or investment holdings. To the furthest extent possible, counsel worked with each staffer to recuse from conflicting conduct rather than being granted waivers, which has led to the limited number of waivers being issued.”
Ethics groups criticized the waivers as proof the administration is not committed to stopping former lobbyists from taking over the executive branch.
“The ethics waivers the White House finally released reveal what we already suspected: that this administration is chock full of senior officials working on issues on which they lobbied, meeting with companies in which they have a financial interest, or working closely with former employers,” said Noah Bookbinder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
